Boris Johnson Hits Out at Met Office over ‘Mild Winter’ Claim

BORIS JOHNSON has put his snow boot into the Met Office over what he sees as its failure to predict the current big freeze.

“Why did the Met Office forecast a ‘mild winter’?” he asks in his column for the Daily Telegraph today.

“They said it would be mild and damp.”

“Well, I can tell you that this one is a corker. I can’t remember a time when so much snow has lain so thickly on the ground, and we haven’t even reached Christmas.”

In fact the Met Office has been predicting the cold snap for a while, but the London Mayor’s frustration is probably shared by many of those stuck on roads or at airports.

Some might even be lumping the blame on Johnson himself, given the delays experienced across London over the weekend.

“I can only say that we are doing our level best,” said the Mayor on his efforts to keep the transport system on the move.

Trains, the Tube and buses were all up and running today and London’s airports had started to clear the backlog of cancelled flights this morning, but a band of snow had moved perilously close to Heathrow by midday, threatening more problems.

Down at the airport queue, the blame game has extended to TV weather people, whose reports seem to be on a loop via the monitors.

“What annoyed us was seeing these reporters who looked like they’d been plucked from Playschool mucking around in the snow like four-year-olds,” said Poran Malani, who hopes to reach Bangalore in time to see his wife and child at Christmas.

“It was so insensitive when people are separated from their families. You just want to punch them in the face.”